It bothers me when I keep finding out that we’ve been playing something altogether wrong…for several sessions or even years. While reading the new D&D edition, we make assumptions and rely on past knowledge or even house rules that are completely wrong or change the nature of the game in ways we never anticipated. Such an incident has happened in my happy little weekend gaming group and I’ll expose this for all the world to see (oh, the shame…).

I first noted that something was wrong when a female paladin in my group started using her detect evil ability to basically give herself the green light to skip any social interactions and head directly to divine might/smite evil/power attack on any evil creature she met. Basically, if she got any reading at all, she attacked. It did not matter if the creature was a semi-helpful, charming rogue or a vile blasphemy of undeath - both met their fates in a similar manner. The problem was that some of those human NPCs who were, admittedly, evil in alignment, had important clues and info for the characters if they would have only talked to them. Some of the NPCs tried to conceal their alignments in order to parley with the group, but the detect evil ability rooted them out immediately. In fact, every encounter, even those with townfolk or greedy merchants, always began with an “evil detection probe” by the paladin. This isn’t always bad - y’see she was inadvertantly geased by a powerful wizard once to retrieve an artifact and not harm him in any way while doing it. She was thoroughly tricked (as only a newbie player could be), but it furthered the story and led to a very exciting adventure! She felt as if she (the player) had been betrayed, and swore there and then to ALWAYS detect first, smite second, and ask questions last. Needless to say, as DM of this group, I was a little dismayed. Still, her Lawful Good nature made her a Crusader and her actions were indeed eliminating evil and thereby protecting good. I couldn’t fault her, but it was socially awkward and not really good role-playing from a story point of view.

Now, I’m playing a paladin in Mystagogue’s campaign. I too now have the detect evil ability, but I’m approaching it from another angle. You see, my paladin only has a 6 Intelligence and his abilities are developing by trial and error. He now knows that he can tell if someone is very bad by looking at them and thinking hard. The problem being that he is, by nature, a trusting soul. He would much rather use Sense Motive to determine what anyone wants than constantly have to look for evil around him. Lately, the party cleric has been telling him how to use his powers. Although he trusts the cleric, he feels that it isn’t necessary to look at EVERY person with this gift - mainly because it goes against his nature. By coincidence, the cleric is being played by the same player who used to play the female paladin….

Enter the dilemma. I did NOT realize that detect evil no longer detected the alignment of regular creatures. Instead, it can only detect an evil aura! If you look in the Player’s Handbook, you will note that clerics and paladins now exude an aura of their alignment. So, a LE cleric of Hextor, for example, would register to a detect evil and a detect law spell. A LE assassin would not provide a reading, since such a character does not radiate an aura. This was news to me! We had inadvertantly carried over a rule from a previous edition! Horrors!

Apparently (using detect evil as the de facto example), you can only use the spell on a creature that radiates an alignment aura due to its inherent nature (an evil outsider or undead, for example), a spell with the evil descriptor placed on an object, creature, or location (such as unholy aura), and certain aligned magic items or those which are deemed evil (such as a book of vile darkness). In addition, you get stunned if the evil is more powerful than you can handle (twice as high in strength as your level)! This last bit I have used in a purely role-playing sense in the past, never as an actual game mechanic. I was pleased to find it nonetheless.

So now, armed with this knowledge, and knowing that know alignment no longer exists as a spell, there appears to be no easy way to accurately determine a mortal creature’s alignment (as it should be). You can only gain insight on their intentions with a Sense Motive check. To confuse the issue, the reverse of the old know alignment spell, undetectable alignment, is still a spell! This means that some demon or devil could use it to conceal their evil nature and remain undetected using illusions, polymorph, or shapechanging. Very interesting! It also allows any creature with a detect [alignment] ability to note the clerics in the party and single them out, or realize that a cleric has evoked a particular type of spell with an alignment descriptor. More importantly, it forces players to interact with NPCs before charging in and smiting them. Bravo, Wizards of the Coast! You’ve finally done something right (in my eyes, at least)!